


Realizing Things

by Vampowerment



Category: High School Musical (Movies)
Genre: Character Study, Dialogue Heavy, Gay Panic, Gen, M/M, Male Friendship, One Shot, Questioning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 12:04:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15119027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vampowerment/pseuds/Vampowerment
Summary: Chad Danforth gushes about his boyfriend and Troy Bolton realizes things.





	Realizing Things

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this on the 10th anniversary of HSM2 but I never uploaded it here.

“So, you and Ryan are like, a thing now?” Troy asks, absentmindedly throwing a basketball against the wall of Chad’s room.

“Yep.” Chad says, catching the basketball as it bounces off the wall in his direction. “Pretty neat, huh?”

“Neat?” Troy turns around from his place leaning up against Chad’s bed to face his friend, grinning. “It’s ‘ _ pretty neat’?”  _ He repeats, laughing. 

“Hey! I’m new to the whole actually caring about relationships thing!” Chad says with a laugh, throwing the basketball at Troy. “It really is great though.” he adds, a soft smile on his face.  Troy moves to sit on the bed next to Chad as he continues. “With Taylor none of it really felt real, y’know? Like she’s cool and she’s my friend but once we had to do any kinda romancey stuff it was just awkward for the both of us. Like, I honestly didn’t understand how you and Gabriella made it work, and I was honestly kind of jealous of that…”

“Wait, jealous? Of me and Gabby?” Troy interrupted incredulously. 

“Well, yeah, you guys are like the power couple of East High. I think everyone wants a relationship like what you have.” Chad pauses when he sees Troy’s guilty face, “Or, had, I guess. Have you guys not gotten back together yet? Normally you only stay broken up for like a week, tops.”

“Normally, cause breaking up is a normal thing for us.” Troy sighs. 

“Uh oh, did I strike a nerve there? You good?” 

“No, no, I’m good. It’s just… We always seem to get along really well until we start dating? Then it just keeps falling apart and I don’t know why. I love her a lot, man, but wanna hear something weird?”

“Lay it on me.”

“She broke up with me this most recent time because we stopped spending time together.” He looks into Chad’s eyes intently as he says this.

“Well, yeah, you guys are busy and relationships don’t work without time.”

“You and Ryan are both busy too.”

“Yeah, but we make time for-- _ ooohh….” _

“Mmmhmm.”

“You were avoiding her.”

“Yep.”

“Huh.” Chad scrunches up his eyebrows and grabs the basketball off the floor, spinning it absentmindedly in his hands. “I feel like my entire worldview has been shaken.”

“Well as you said, we do break up, like, a lot…”

“So why is this a surprise? Why does this feel groundbreaking?”

“Your guess is probably better than mine, man.”

Chad is silent for a moment, “So… should i keep the relationship talk on the downlow for a bit?”

“No!” Troy says entirely too quickly. “I mean, I still like hearing about it. I feel like I missed out on a lot this summer, how’d you guys get so close anyway?”

“Did you know how good Ryan is at baseball?” Chad exclaims, “He’s  _ very good _ at baseball. We invited him to the staff baseball game cause you’d been bailing on us--”

“Sorry!” 

“--and Sharpay had been bailing on him, and we decided if he could somehow beat me at baseball I’d let him show me how to dance--”

“DANG!”

“--It somehow didn’t seem that obvious at the time? So I was certain I’d win ‘cause I didn’t realize he did any kind of sports, like at all, muchless baseball, but he did SO WELL and one thing led to the other and next thing I know I’m wearing his clothes and I promised I’d let him show me how to dance.”

“Wait, hold on,  _ wearing each other’s clothes?  _ How did that happen and how did it take you so long to actually start dating after that?” 

“Well I switched our hats and he insisted that the outfits should match so then when we went to the locker room we just switched everything.” Chad pauses for a moment, still grinning from ear to ear, “He looks so good in red…”

“I bet he does.”

“Huh?”

“What? I can appreciate how another dude looks. Dude to dude and stuff.” Troy’s face flushes red as he speaks.

“Dude, that’s gay.”

“Nahh…”

“I’m serious! Like on my honor as a dude who likes dudes, I hereby proclaim that very gay. Wait… Troy?”

“Uh, yeah?”

“You said you and Gabby were only awkward while dating right? And that you’d been avoiding her?”

“Yeah…” 

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s exactly like me and Taylor.”

“Oh.”

“Oh’s right.”

“Huh.”

“Yep.”

“Dang.”

“How long is this gonna take? Want me to help you through this identity crisis or are you good?”

“I don’t know what I am.” Troy says, eyes wide in blank shock.

Chad starts laughing and pats Troy on the back. “It’s like that sometimes.”


End file.
